


Game, Start!

by EmeraldTrash666



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Comedy, Gen, If you try to call this Puzzleshipping I will teleport into your house and eat all your Yugioh cards, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Duelist Kingdom? I guess?? Look man the Yugioh timeline is a mess, Random boring villain of the day OCs, Slice of Life, When u miss season 0 shenanigans but still love the main series character dynamics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 10:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15705075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldTrash666/pseuds/EmeraldTrash666
Summary: For as much as games (especially one certain game in particular) have caused an unusual amount of trouble for Yuugi Mutou and his friends, the fact remains that games have been an inseparable part of human culture since the dawn of civilization- designed to engage, entertain, and even teach. Here is a look at some of the many interesting games that have kept Yuugi and friends busy in the blissfully mundane times between fighting for their lives.





	Game, Start!

**Author's Note:**

> What? Me, writing something for a fandom other than Joey Jojo's Kooky Quest for once? Yep, believe it or not, ya girl somehow managed to get into Yugioh. In 2018, no less. I could have done this at any point during the past two decades, you know, when Yugioh was actually still popular with people other than scarily intense card game nerds, but no... Eh, it is what it is, I suppose.  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this fic! It's my first Yugioh fic and I only got into it like, uh, about two months ago, so I hope I did decently..? Please forgive me if I didn't, and feedback is greatly appreciated. Also, there will be additional chapters, but there's no real overall "plot", so chapters will be added spontaneously as I feel like it. Enjoy!  
> And of course, thanks to Rachel for beta-ing this fic, and for introducing me to the goth nerd disaster compilation that is Yugioh in the first place. <3

“Hey, Yugi!”

As Jounouchi rather unceremoniously flung the door open, he swore he saw a flash of startled red eyes snapping up to meet his. And then, suddenly, it all happened at once; A clatter, a crash, a shout, and suddenly, his socks and the hem of his pants were soaking wet.

In the center of the chaos was Yuugi, sitting on the floor in his now-wet pajamas, eyes screwed shut as water dripped down his face and from the tips of his hair. In front of him was a battered old go board (though it didn’t seem like it was being used for it intended purpose, and was also dripping wet), and on the board and floor around him lay several dozen small, skinny wooden blocks, along with a large plastic drinking glass- evidently the source of the spill.

“What the hell was that?!” Jounouchi exclaimed, shaking out his feet alternatingly in a futile attempt to dry his socks.

“Jounouchi-kun! Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?!” Yuugi shouted right back, jumping up from the floor and grabbing a blanket off the bed to use as a makeshift towel.

“Fair point, my bad, but why is there water everywhere?”

“Look, I’ll explain in a minute, just- Go wait outside for now, alright? I need to put on dry clothes,” Yuugi grumbled as he hastily wiped off the go board.

Jounouchi blinked, and confusedly did as he was told, not knowing what else to do, really. A few minutes later, Yuugi emerged from the bedroom, wearing a fresh set of clothes- though his bangs were still dripping water. He let out a held breath as he shut the door behind him.

“Good morning, Jounouchi-kun.”

“Good morning, Yuugi,” Jounouchi replied, nodding in acknowledgement. “Now, uh, mind telling me what that was all about..?”

“Oh, um… Well, I was playing Jenga, you see. And regular Jenga’s gotten kinda boring, so the other me suggested that we could… raise the stakes a bit, by putting a glass of water on top,” Yuugi explained with a sheepish grin.

Jounouchi stared at Yuugi silently for a moment.

“So, let me get this straight,” he began. “You two decided to play Jenga- a game that you can’t ‘win’, because it always ends with falling over- with a full glass of water on top… And _neither_ of you thought this was in any way a bad idea?” he questioned, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

_“...You know, he makes a good point,”_ a certain voice admitted thoughtfully in the back of Yuugi’s mind. _“Why_ did _we think that was a good idea?”_

“Um… It was early in the morning?” Yuugi tried.

“And why were you playing Jenga this early, exactly?”

Yuugi shrugged unhelpfully.

“Anzu-chan’s here!” Yuugi’s grandfather called from the bottom of the stairs, prompting both boys to nearly jump with the sudden realization that they were dangerously close to being late for school. Quickly dashing down the stairs, they stopped briefly by the side door to grab their shoes and bags.

“Eew, my socks are all wet now…” Jounouchi muttered as he put his shoes on, grimacing in discomfort.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me… What are you doing here, anyway?” Yuugi asked. And then, realizing it was a rather blunt question, quickly added, “Um, not to be rude, of course! I mean I love your company, it’s just that you don’t usually come to my house before school, so…” he trailed off.

Jounouchi laughed slightly at his friend’s awkwardness. “Yeah, I realized that I left my Game Boy at your place yesterday,” he explained. “Turns out your grandpa already found it and had it ready for me when I got here, but I figured I’d stop by your room to say hi anyway.” With that, he slung his bag over his shoulder, waiting for Yuugi before opening the door.

“Good morning, you two,” Anzu greeted them casually, once they were outside. She frowned slightly upon seeing Yuugi, looking puzzled.

“Good morning, Anzu. Um, is something wrong..?”

“Yuugi…” Anzu frowned even further, leaning in as if to scrutinize his face, causing Yuugi to nervously pull back with a guilty expression (though what he was supposed to feel guilty about, exactly he wasn’t sure).

“Did you oversleep?” she asked finally.

Now it was Yuugi’s turn to look confused. “No, why?”

“Your hair’s still wet, and you’re not wearing any eyeliner,” Anzu pointed out.

“...It’s, uh… kind of a long story-”

“Dumb and Dumber here decided to play Jenga with a glass of water on top of the tower, for some reason that’s beyond me,” Jounouchi explained, gesturing towards Yuugi.

“Hey!” Yuugi exclaimed, blushing in embarrassment.

Anzu raised an eyebrow at Yuugi, though she didn’t seem too surprised. “You know, I’d say you need a hobby, but I think your hobby _is_ the problem,” she commented dryly.

Yuugi pouted slightly. “Look, I was bored, alright? Everyone does stupid things when they’re bored,” he insisted.

“I guess you make a decent point,” Anzu admitted, as the three of them continued walking, following the familiar path to school more by muscle memory than anything. “Still kind of weird, though, I mean…”

* * *

“Steady, steady…”

Yuugi’s hand hovered uncertainly in the air, a drop of sweat rolling down his forehead as he slowly, carefully aimed to place the last card on top of what was less of a card _house,_ so much as perhaps more appropriately called a card _palace._ The impressive sculpture stood atop his desk, towering a good 20 centimeters or so above his height, the faces of his favorite monsters adorning it like murals on the walls of an ancient temple.

With just the slightest movement, Yuugi brought the final card- Monster Reborn- to its designated spot, gently, carefully letting it go before pulling his hand away. And then, the room broke out into cheers.

“That’s awesome, Yuugi!”

“Way to go!”

“That’s gotta be your best one yet!”

Yuugi blushed slightly, grinning a wide, beaming smile. “Hehe, thanks guys! It took a lot of practice to be able to pull this off, but I’m proud of how it-”

Suddenly, with a gust of wind that ruffled Yuugi’s hair, a _swoosh-clack_ noise echoed through the classroom as cards flew everywhere. A few even landed on Yuugi as they fluttered to the floor, Gaia the Fierce Knight hitting him smack in the forehead.

“Oops, clumsy me,” said a voice that held not a trace of sincerity, belonging to a tall, brawny boy who sneered down at Yuugi with an air of superiority, one hand still held up near Yuugi’s desk.

Yuugi gasped, his previous smile morphing into a hurt frown. “Hokai-kun! Not again..!”

“Hey! What the hell is your problem, asshole?! That’s like the fifth time you’ve knocked down Yuugi’s card tower this week!” Jounouchi snapped, pointing at Hokai accusatorily.

Hokai shrugged, feigning innocence. “Hey, don’t blame me- He can’t build fragile things like that, and not expect _someone_ to knock them down sooner or later!”

“Uh, yeah, he can, because we’re not in kindergarten anymore and everyone here ought to be capable of basic respect and self-restraint,” Anzu retorted dryly with arms crossed and a pointed glare. “You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Meanwhile, Yuugi crawled along the floor, frantically trying to gather up his cards. As he reached for a card that lay underneath a desk, he felt his hand brush against someone else’s.

“Here, let me help you,” Bakura said gently, smiling sympathetically at Yuugi from the other side of the desk.

“Thank you, Bakura-kun.”

As the two boys continued picking cards off the floor, Hokai remained just as confident and smug as always.

“I just can’t help it, you know? I love knocking things down! It’s so satisfying!” he insisted, continuing his debate with Anzu. “But hey, don’t take it from me! That’s just the way of the world: Every fragile, pretty thing built by little people like you, eventually gets knocked down by the big, tough guys like me.”

As Hokai laughed loudly as if the whole thing were some brilliant joke, he moved his foot ever so slightly, just to keep Yuugi’s hand away from the card he had been about to reach for.

Yuugi saw the face of the Dark Magician just barely peeking out from underneath Hokai’s shoe, and suddenly, he wasn’t quite himself anymore.

With a growl, he slammed his elbow hard into the back of Hokai’s knee, snatching up his beloved Dark Magician the second Hokai’s foot left the ground. He made no hurry as he stood up, clutching the card tightly, yet carefully, and looking down at Hokai with a firmly rooted stance and a glare that could bore a hole through steel.

“Hokai! Your senseless destruction has gone on long enough!” he declared. “If you like knocking things over so much, meet me on the roof at midnight. That is, if you’re not too much of a coward,” he added scathingly.

Hokai seemed to go a bit pale for a moment, before getting ahold of himself and standing up. “Fine! But don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he replied ominously. He stepped uncomfortably close to Yuugi, looming over him from high above.

Yuugi simply stared back up at him with his arms crossed, not budging or flinching in the slightest, unfazed and unblinking. There was something unsettling in those sharp, red-violet eyes, causing Hokai to jump slightly after a few seconds.

“Ugh, whatever!” Hokai snapped, turning away with a huff. “Creepy little freak…” he muttered under his breath as he walked towards the door.

Yuugi watched him for a moment with an unreadable expression, as if contemplating something, before shaking his head and bending down to pick up the last few remaining cards. He took the rest of the cards, which had already been placed on the desk, and straightened them out and placed them in their box with gentle care.

“Woah, hang on! You’re not planning on _fighting_ that Hokai punk, are you?!” Jounouchi blurted out in disbelief. “I mean, knocking him over like that was pretty cool, sure, but he’s like twice your size, man! You’ll _die!”_ he exclaimed, as Yuugi sat back down at his desk.

Yuugi snorted in mild amusement as he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head and putting his feet up on the desk. “A tempting idea, but no. That’s not really my style. I have a better plan,” he decided.

“That… Sounds kind of ominous,” Honda commented.

Yuugi smiled reassuringly at Honda, or so he thought. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing lethal,” he promised.

Jounouchi raised an eyebrow. “Uh… I dunno how to break this to you, buddy, but that reeeeeally doesn’t sound nearly as reassuring as you think it does,” he pointed out awkwardly.

“What do you mean?”

Before Jounouchi could respond, the period bell rang. Yuugi’s head snapped towards the source of the noise, and it was almost as if a switch flipped in his mind. He blinked for a moment, confused, before shrugging and sitting up properly.

His friends exchanged nervous looks.

“Um… Should we say something to him, you think?” Bakura whispered to Honda, glancing back at Yuugi, who was calmly taking a textbook out from the storage under his desk.

“...I dunno, maybe we should just-”

“Hey, you four!” the teacher interrupted sternly, startling the group. “What are you doing out of your seats? Sit down, it’s time for class.”

“Y-yes sir,” the four students in question replied hastily, hurrying back to their respective desks.

* * *

It was around 11:30 that night that Yuugi- that is, the Other Yuugi, as his friends had come to call him- began to make his move.

It was a good thing that his metaphysical roommate of sorts was so diligent about going to bed on time on school nights, he thought to himself, as he threw the last of the necessary supplies into his bag. _Why_ exactly was beyond him, as he personally wasn’t very fond of sleeping, but it did nonetheless save him the trouble of trying to convince his aibou that it was totally cool for him to sneak out of the house at midnight to go deliver weird, excessive game-based vigilante justice. Sometimes these things needed to be done, like it or not.

This was a special case, too. Thanks to Hokai, the precious deck he shared with aibou had wound up on the floor! He’d _stepped on Dark Magician,_ for god’s sake! That was their favorite card! For someone to treat their cards- their _friends-_ like that… It was absolutely unforgivable. Hokai needed to be put in his place.

...And besides, it’d been a while since he’d had some real fun. He’d have been lying if he’d said he wasn’t at least slightly looking forward to it.

He crept cautiously down the stairs, taking care not to alert the other members of the household to his presence. And for the most part, he was successful; Chalk it up to being a spirit (...of some sort, probably..? He was still unclear on the details), or maybe just the fact that he was barely over 150 centimeters tall and probably weighed about as much as your average 8-year-old, but either way he was somehow quite good at being stealthy. He was almost to the door, when-

“Yuugi!”

He froze tensely in his tracks, slowly, nervously turning his head to face the source of the interruption: his mother, standing with her hands on her hips in the kitchen doorway, lips pursed in a frown.

“Just _where_ do you think you’re going at this hour, young man?” she demanded in that accusing, authoritative parental tone, glaring at Yuugi with a stern look.

“Uh… I was just… Going to see a movie,” he tried, hoping that was a believable excuse.

Yuugi’s mother raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? What movie?”

He went silent, not really having an answer for that.

“Mhmm, that’s what I thought,” his mother said sarcastically. “You were trying to sneak out to go partying, weren’t you! Do you know what that kind of behavior leads to?!”

Yuugi frowned in confusion. Wait, what?

She thought he was… what? Why? He stared in bafflement as she continued to lecture him, wondering why she was even doing so. Why in the world would she think he was sneaking out to go partying? Had… had this woman even met her own son? Like, either of them? Neither of them were at all interested in such things, and frankly, he wasn’t even sure aibou knew what a party _was,_ aside from a group of adventurers. Why would she think _that_ was what he was doing?

...Then again, considering she still apparently hadn’t noticed the whole split personality thing… Maybe she really didn’t know her own son very well. He was vaguely aware that he (or rather, aibou- he was still somewhat grappling with the fact that they were, apparently, two different people) wasn’t especially fond of his mother, and now it was easy to see why. Given that he- the Other Yuugi- was much more confident and collected than the original Yuugi, had better posture, generally spoke much more directly, apparently _looked_ slightly different according to his friends (which she really ought to have noticed, considering how long she’d been glaring at him at the moment), and even _referred to himself using completely different pronouns,_ his mother must have been preeeetty uninvolved in her son’s life to not notice any of that. It was… sad, really, just as much as it was annoying.

“Yuugi! Are you listening to me?!”

He nodded quickly. (He wasn’t. He’d totally zoned out and missed everything she had been saying for the past several minutes, but perhaps lending further credit to his theory, his mother did not seem to have noticed.)

“Good, and you better remember it, understand? Now go to your room,” she ordered. “And I better not catch you out of bed again, or you’re grounded, mister!” she added firmly, even as Yuugi was about ready to bolt.

“Of course, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again, bye!” he blurted out a hasty, impatient apology as he dashed towards the stairs.

“‘Bye’?!”

“I mean, goodnight!”

* * *

Yuugi shut the door quickly and let out a sigh of relief, glad to be back in the peace and quiet of his shared room. _That_ had been an awkward encounter, to say the least. And a time-wasting one, too; A quick glance at the clock on the nightstand revealed that it was almost a quarter to midnight.

Well, no matter. He still had some time. So what if his plans had been thrown off slightly? The side door wasn’t the only way to get in and out of the house… Although it was where his shoes were, so there was that, but he honestly didn’t really mind going barefoot. With this in mind, he climbed on top of the desk, pushing the skylight open.

It was all going to be fine. He just had to take a little detour, that was all. No big deal.

* * *

_Grandpa_ would have been fine with him sneaking out, he thought to himself bitterly as he slowly, awkwardly climbed down the side of the house. _Grandpa_ would have understood. Grandpa _always_ understood. But no, of course it had to have been mom who he ran into by accident. What kind of person even went out partying on a Monday night, anyway? Stupid mom.

He was totally going in through the door when he got back, he decided, glancing at the scrapes on his hands from the makeshift rope he’d assembled out of several pairs of jeans. He knew aibou kept a key to the house in his bag, so there was no reason he couldn’t just go inside, mother be damned. She’d probably be asleep by the time he got back, anyway, or at least he hoped so.

Now that that was out of the way, the other person he had to be careful not to wake was none other than his very own spiritual roommate, his aibou. The original Yuugi.

Of course, he hadn’t been lying when he’d said he wasn’t going to do anything lethal. He truly did regret the things he’d done in the past; His first few months of consciousness had been a turbulent, confusing time, when he’d been not fully aware of his own existence, unable to separate himself from Yuugi’s years’ worth of pent-up frustration from a lifetime of bullying, and too new to existence to quite have a grasp on concepts like morality and identity. All he’d known at the time had been vengeance, games, shadow magic, and Yuugi, and- perhaps in part due to anger at his own confusion- it had resulted in him making a lot of mistakes. A lot of very serious, horrific mistakes, which he genuinely did deeply regret. And he didn’t plan on making them again.

...But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t still willing to at least _slightly_ rough up some bad guys every now and then, and it definitely didn’t mean aibou was likely to approve of what he was about to do.

He was about halfway to school when, speak of the devil, he felt aibou’s consciousness stirring in the back of his mind. A moment later, and he appeared, floating next to his body with a disoriented, not-quite-awake expression.

_“Wha… Other me? What are you… Where are you going?”_ he asked sleepily, glancing around in confusion.

_“...Sneaking out to see a movie?”_ the Other Yuugi replied awkwardly, speaking mentally so as to avoid being overheard. He really needed to come up with some new excuses, he realized; Given that he genuinely didn’t do much of anything other than play games, he was sort of failing to think of any.

Yuugi stared at him for a moment, head tilted as if attempting to think about something, and then shrugged. _“Oh… well… alright then. Have fun, I guess,”_ he decided, before once again disappearing, well and truly asleep this time.

The remaining Yuugi couldn’t help but laugh slightly at that, a subtle affectionate smile on his face; His dear aibou’s naive, trusting nature was both admittedly deeply concerning, and kind of adorable at the same time. ...Mostly concerning, though. God only knew how he’d managed to survive the 15 years he’d been alive _before_ solving a cursed ancient Egyptian puzzle and accidentally summoning some sort of mystery spirit to become his more sensible (if he could say so himself) alternate personality.

Truly, he thought as he began casually picking the lock to break into the school, where would Yuugi be without him to look out for him?

* * *

The nice thing about the roof of the school was that hardly anyone ever went up there, meaning that the desk he’d brought up there during a different game several months ago was, somehow, still there. This was a relief, as he not only didn’t really have time to go get one, but also frankly it had been a real pain in the ass last time and he really would rather not have to do it again; Carrying a desk up several flights of stairs without help is not fun for anyone, and doubly so for someone of Yuugi’s stature. Yes, he was most certainly relieved it was still there.

He reached into his bag to begin preparing his trap, taking out the necessary components: a dozen or so colorful, wheel-shaped wooden blocks, a matching tiny wooden mallet, a tealight, a cigarette lighter, and a small container of gasoline. To anyone else, this assortment of items would most likely have seemed random and unrelated, but to Yuugi, they were essential pieces of a very interesting puzzle.

First, he slowly, carefully stacked the blocks on top of the desk. Next, he lit the tealight and placed it on top of the stack, taking care not to accidentally knock the tower over. Finally, he uncapped the gasoline, poured a generous ring of it around the tower, replaced the cap, and stood back with his hands on his hips to admire his handiwork.

Only one thing was missing, and it wasn’t long before that thing arrived.

“Hello, Hokai,” he greeted his victim, grinning ominously.

In contrast to Yuugi’s confident, knowing smile, Hokai appeared uncertain, unsettled. “Yuugi… What’s with all this stuff? What, are you trying to hold a seance or something?” he wondered, glancing back and forth between Yuugi and the desk and sounding more nervous than he meant to.

Yuugi actually laughed out loud at that, shaking his head. “Why would I need to do that when I’m already here?” Before Hokai had a chance to ask just what he meant by that, Yuugi continued speaking. “I’m sure you’re familiar with the game of daruma otoshi, yes?” he questioned, gesturing to the candle-topped tower on the desk.

“Of course I am, you think I’m stupid or something?” Hokai replied, crossing his arms and glaring down at Yuugi.

_“Good,”_ Yuugi said, something about his voice sending a chill down Hokai’s spine. “Then allow me to introduce you to candle otoshi. The rules are simple: we take turns using this mallet to knock away pieces of the tower from the bottom up, just like daruma otoshi. If a player causes the top of the tower to fall down, they lose- and the gasoline surrounding it ignites,” he explained.

Hokai’s eyes widened. “Gasoline?! That’s- Y-you’re crazy, man! There’s no way I’d play something like that, you little freak!” he stammered.

Yuugi raised an eyebrow. “Oh? But I thought you ‘just couldn’t help’ wanting to knock things down?” he pointed out, a slight sarcastic edge to his calm voice. “I seem to recall you saying… What was it… Ah yes, that every ‘fragile, pretty thing’ I build, you would knock down. Don’t tell me you intend to just leave this one alone?”

“...Alright, fine. You got me. I’ll give your weirdo candle-whatever a try, but you’re gonna regret it,” Hokai insisted.

Yuugi’s grin widened from smug to downright scary. “Then it’s game time.”

As soon as Yuugi said that, the atmosphere itself almost seemed to shift, causing Hokai to involuntarily shiver as an unseasonably cold breeze blew by. Despite this, however, the candle remained lit.

“As a token of goodwill, I’ll go first,” Yuugi decided, walking over to the desk with the mallet in hand. He crouched down slightly to get a better look at the bottom of the tower, carefully lining up his shot, checking it from several angles-

“Hey, hurry it up, runt! I don’t have all night!” Hokai complained.

Yuugi frowned slightly, but said nothing as he pulled the mallet back. With a flick of the wrist, he hit the bottom of the tower with expert precision, sending the bottom block flying into his open hand. The remaining blocks settled perfectly straight, as if the one he’d removed had never been there in the first place.

He stood up again, and tossed the mallet to Hokai in one smooth motion. “Candle otoshi is a game of precision and control, not power,” he warned as he stepped back from the desk.

Hokai snorted dismissively. “Whatever.”

He stepped up to the desk, and took his turn to carefully line up his shot, glancing nervously at the candle for a brief second before swinging the mallet, launching the bottom block out from under the tower with such force that it flew far from the desk and embedded itself squarely between the links of the fence surrounding the roof.

Yuugi raised an eyebrow as he looked towards the escaped block. “Well then,” he muttered. “My turn.”

This time, he had to be a little more careful with his strike, noting the way the blocks had shifted out of alignment slightly. He looked around the tower, searching for just the right spot at which to hit it to compensate for this and avoid knocking it down.

“God, why do you take so long?!” Hokai whined. “It’s not a complicated game! You just hit it!”

“Or maybe you need to think more carefully about what you hit,” Yuugi suggested ominously. “Your turn.”

This time, Hokai said nothing, though he didn’t spend more than a few seconds lining up his shot.

The tower wobbled slightly.

Play continued like this for several more rounds, with Hokai taking less time each turn, while Yuugi conversely took longer and longer. And, of course, the more time went on, the less patience Hokai seemed to have.

“Quit messing around and hit it already!” he demanded, on Yuugi’s fourth turn. “You’re really starting to piss me off, you know?! I thought this would be fun, but playing with you is like watching paint dry!”

“Careful, now. Don’t get too reckless,” Yuugi warned as he passed Hokai the mallet, but he didn’t seem interested in listening.

“I’m tired of you, and I’m tired of this stupid game!” Hokai announced, and in one motion, swung the mallet towards the tower without even looking.

Game over.

Hokai shrieked and dropped as the desk ignited in a fierce blaze, one that enveloped his hand and quickly began spreading up his sleeve. Instinctively, he grabbed his sleeve- only to burn his other hand as well. In a panic, he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, instinct and years of classroom drills driving him to try to put out the flames.

“Consider yourself lucky, Hokai. I’m not even going to give you a punishment game,” Yuugi said coldly, the flickering light of the fire casting unnatural shadows on his face as he loomed over the taller boy, watching him roll around on the ground helplessly. “But know this: It was your own desire to mindlessly destroy that led you to this fate. Remember that, every time you look at these scars, and every time you feel the urge to destroy that which you did not create.”

Turning on his heel, Yuugi didn’t bother looking back as he walked towards the stairs; The pained screams echoing through the night told him all he needed to know.

Mission accomplished. Now, if he could just get back to bed without getting caught...


End file.
